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stinction from mere appearance; fact. A man fancies that he understands a critic, when in reality he does not comprehend his meaning. Addison.

The state of being corporeal; corporeal existence.

The state of being ethereal; etherealness. Something of that ethereality of thought and manner which belonged to Wordsworth's earlier lyrics. J. C. Shairp.

The state or quality of being incorporeal or bodiless; immateriality; incorporealism. G. Eliot.

The quality or state of being unreal; want of reality.

solute; independence of everything extraneous; unlimitedness; absolute power; independent reality; positiveness.

A state of reality or real existence as opposed to a possibility or possible existence. [Obs.] The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be. Hooker.

Existing in act or reality; really acted or acting; in fact; real; -- opposed to potential, possible, virtual, speculative, coceivable, theoretical, or nominal; as, the actual cost of goods; the actual case under discussion.

The state of being actual; reality; as, the actuality of God's nature. South.

In an affected manner; hypocritically; with more show than reality.

Without reality; having no solid foundation; empty; trifling; visionary. "Airy fame." Shak. Empty sound, and airy notions. Roscommon.

To exist in a certain manner or relation, -- whether as a reality or as a product of thought; to exist as the subject of a certain predicate, that is, as having a certain attribute, or as belonging to a certain sort, or as identical with what is specified, -- a word or words for the predicate being annexed; as, to be h…

One who believes; one who is persuaded of the truth or reality of some doctrine, person, or thing.

Corporeality. Minsheu.

rounds; lees; sediment. Johnson. At bottom, At the bottom, at the foundation or basis; in reality. "He was at the bottom a good man." J. F. Cooper. -- To be at the bottom of, to be the cause or originator of; to be the source of. [Usually in an opprobrious sense.] J. H. Newman. He was at the bottom of many excellent c…

g to the French philosopher René Descartes, or his philosophy. The Cartesion argument for reality of matter. Sir W. Hamilton. Cartesian coördinates (Geom), distance of a point from lines or planes; -- used in a system of representing geometric quantities, invented by Descartes. -- Cartesian devil, a small hollow glass…

arison by contrariety of qualities. place the prospect of the soul In sober contrast with reality. Wordsworth.

The state of being or having a body; bodily existence; corporeality; -- opposed to spirituality. Dr. H. More.

One who denies the reality of spiritual existences; a materialist. Some corporealists pretended . . . to make a world without a God. Bp. Berkeley.

Corporeality; corporeity.